A social media storm erupted last week when a Kindred farmer commented to a journalist that he was feeding baby brushed potatoes to his cattle because his supermarket customer did not want them.
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Jamie Spark from Tamar Valley Hydroponics said all producers had a level of wastage, but most, like the North-West potato farmer, had solutions to repurpose the stock.
“It goes with the territory. I think no matter what you grow, you’ll always have some waste,” Mr Spark said.
“There would be a percentage that you can either keep yourself and make your own sauces or jams, or you can find a market for it,” he said.
Mr Spark sells tomatoes, capsicums, eggplant, cucumbers and chillies to Young’s Vegie Shed and also has a stall at Harvest Market Launceston.
Over-ripe tomatoes and cherry tomatoes are repurposed as “sauce” tomatoes or offered to other producers.
“I hardly throw anything on the compost heap. The tomatoes people don’t buy go into sauce boxes, or I offer it to a neighbour who makes jams and chutneys,” Mr Spark said.
“You don’t get a lot of money for it, but if someone is buying it and making sauce then it last six months for them,” he said.
Northern Midlands agronomist Craig Soward works with farmers to grow the best crops, but also documents the process via his Facebook page, Craig's Farming Photos & Videos.
Mr Soward sees crop wastage as a two-pronged issue, with consumer misunderstanding about how produce is grown on one hand and the risk involved in growing crops in the other.
“It’s getting consumers to be more aware of how their food looks and how their food is produced. I try to raise awareness of where food comes from,” Mr Soward said.
“People need to be aware just how much work goes into a crop: seed, fertiliser, water, time,” he said.
When it comes to risk around a crop, farmers are the ones who have more to lose.
“The farmer puts [the crop] in and deals with all the elements,” Mr Soward said.
“If you get only 60-70 per cent suitable for customers, the rest has to go to other markets or cattle or sheep. There’s got to be a better solution,” he said.
This solution could be offering the produce that is rejected by supermarkets at a reduced price, he said.
“The farmer can’t grow something for nothing; even if the farmer gets 50 cents a kilogram, it’s better than it being wasted,” Mr Soward said.
“We have some of the best farmers in world. If we don’t support our local food producers we’ll see more food coming from overseas,” he said.